p24-1953

what the ruber hose for?

yep the clean ones are the ones at the blown head gasket.. i think all the valves are sealing well... that might just be an illusion in the photo. I dont have a drain valve in the block. (only a rounded off nub where one is supposed to be... which i honestly didnt do) should i wire brush off the carbon? or will that do more damage than good? is that an abnormal amount for 15 years?

well pulled the head in about 45 mins, pretty easy job. i found that the head gasket was split in one location, but would this cause the next bank of cylinders to drop in pressure? it looks like i have fair amount of carbon on some cylinders, should i wire brush it off? or leave it alone? why arnt all cylinders equaly black? I can feel no scoring or wear in the cylinder walls so i guess thats good.

i have 215-75 r15 WWW radials got them from diamondback.

do the head bolts typicaly come out easily, or are they like the exhaust manifold bolts?

do i have to drain the coolant completly to remove the head?

Well just a few days ago I got on here and stated how happy I was and how good the car drove. Then this morning I hoped in the car with the family and started off to church. It was running great... after a few blocks I stoped at a light and pushed in the choke all the way. after the light the car ran like cra...well you know. After a few block it got even worse. It would idle okay, rough but okay... when you put a load on it the whole car shuddred, but it stilled moved and ran. After church we limped home and up the hills of death. When you got going in gear it wasnt bad it, rode rough but wanst shaking. If floored it toped out a 30 in 3rd. After it cooled down i pulled the plugs and noticed a few were dark. decided to run a compression test.... 2 months ago my compression was 110-115 on all 6 cylinders. Today... 115, 115, 0, 0, 40, 35 What happened? blown head gasket? i wasnt burning oil or smoking. Stuck valves possibly? There was no noticble sound of knocking. what is amazing is it drove home.. these engines are built like a tank.

right, i have read that, but i couldnt imagine them remachining everything. i know heads, manifolds ect. all interchange. I know that my current hydrive crank has 8 bolts, dosent the 230 also have 8 bolts? i assumed that only the block, and oil pumps were differnt because of the oil passages. i thought that the internalls would be the same. is this not correct?

im not planning on changing any time soon, just wanting to learn. will a 230 crank fit in a hydrive engine? what is the difference between a hydrive crank and a stock 218 crank or 230 crank?

Well, had a client call a few days ago and wanted me to meet him at his job site 50 miles away. It just so happens that day i had drove the plymouth to work for fun. normally, i would have ran home and got the daily driver but i decided why do i need to do that. Tha car ran great, with a heat index of 105+ going 70mph, with the a/c on and the radio going i had a great time, and got some really strange looks as i drove up to the construction site in my car. The wife and I had taken the car on longer trips but it was always one of those... "3 days before change the oil, check all the fluids, worry and listen for every noise" trips... this time it was "ok lets get in and go, and not worry" Best part the temp guage stayed dead center even in the heat with the a/c on and i got 22 mpg to top it all off. im a happy camper....

a friend from church was telling me that his 200? diesle f-250's a/c clutch was slipping. If the truck is cool the a/c work's good but after driving around for 30-45 mins and the under hood temps get higher, the a/c will not cool. he says that when its hot you can watch the a/c clutch try to engage but never actually do so it just continues to spin free. he takes it to a reputable mechanic here in town and he says that he has to drain the system, change the clutch and compressor (because the two assembled together are cheaper than the clutch alone) he also says he has to replace the drier and something else all for around 1,000 dollars. The A/c compressor and clutch are about $120-150, the clutch alone is $90. Since i have all the guages , a vacuum pump and the truck R134a, why couldnt we just replace the compressor and refill the system? would it damage the dryer if it was open to the elements for 2 or 3 hours? wouldnt this be just like filling the vintage air system on my plymouth? or is there an advantage to just replacing the clutch alone? how hard are they to remove?

yeah most of the plymouth items were high but i ended up getting the tie rod ends worst case im out 8 buck for 2 pairs. got a new tool box for the trunk of the car... 1 buck, cant go wrong. i was supprised about the $20 headlight rings and $80 bumpers, i know the 49 bumpers are wanted but i agree seemed high.

tim did you see the tie rod ends? were they right for our cars?

just went through all of this. i found a electric fan (on a thermostat) in addition to a 7 blade flex fan will keeep mine cool-ish... i run about 3/4 on the temp guage when the a/c is running in 100 deg weather. the fan on the thermostate helped the most because i was having a real problem with heat soak after the car was turned off. how are you planing to do your step up? i did not have to do that... im running the stock radiator for a hydrive and stock shroud

its a 2002 vw beetle. thanks for looking. everything around here is either damaged or destroyed

WELL THE SQUIRLES FINALLY FOUND A NICE PLACE TO NEST OTHER THAN MY ENGINE COMPARTMENT, UNFORTUNANTLY IT WAS IN THE WIFES CAR. THEY HAVE DESTROYED THE UNDER HOOD INSULATION BLANKET. V/W WANTS $200 FOR A NEW ONE AND I HAVE CALLED EVERY SALVAGE YARD AND NO ONE HAS ONE. ANY IDEAS? is there a substitute material i can use?

is it okay to use a rubber fuel line from the fuel pump to carb? does the rubber line provide better insuation properties than the stock steel line?

that was a good one wasnt it last night... the first big clap shook the house and windows so much it set off the house's glass break alarm...

tim, thanks for all the advice...

i had jack mans carb shop rebuild my carb, and it seems that i am now keeping fuel in the bowl, but i hanv't checked it after letting it sit for more than a day, i have been enjoy driving it. i kinda went through withdrawl after not driving it for 2 weeks. so when i turn the car off i shouldnt have any vapors in the carb?

tim, i tried it again last night, and i had to be in overdrive so 45-50 to 0 in order to get it to stall out, and it had to be a hard stop, pulling up to a light didnt do it. if i was going less than 30 than it wouldnt stall out, would i see percolation when the car is running or does it need to be off? after i stop the car and remove the air cleaner i have a white fog in the barrel of the carb.

tim, so if the float was set to high, which would cause it to over fill, correct? on a sudden stop wouldnt all the fuel go forward? how would this cause it to stall out?

yeah the carb it supposed to have a dash pot, but somewhere in the last 57 years it has grwon legs and walked off, and those dont show up for sell very often.

got a hydrive, so i never even touched the clutch, but you might be right, might have just stalled out. just paranoid

what will cause this condition? the car seems to be running good with the rebuilt carb, but today i had to do a quick stop braking hard (45-0) and the car just stoped sometime durring the stop. turned the key and after 2 cranks it fired right back up. Could the stall be caused by a fuel starved carb?